A&R heads for Borders

Anyone upset by the Angus & Robertson bookstore chain's cavalier financial demands on small book publishers last month will be anxious at news that A&R's owner, Pacific Equity Partners, has lodged an offer for the 24 Australian and New Zealand stores of the US Borders Group.

The private equity group also owns the Whitcoulls stores in New Zealand. Australian-owned Dymocks is believed to be among others interested in the $100 million-plus deal, though the chief executive, Don Grover, would not comment. The 70 Borders stores in Britain and Ireland sold last week to Risk Capital Partners, owned by the Channel 4 chairman, Luke Johnson.